Ah, 4th of July in small town America, where the new NOW chapter marches past the pipe and coin shop supposedly owned by a Klansman....
The GF was officially boycotting the holiday - it's hard to really feel like celebrating what this country stands for right now. But we happened to stumble on the parade on the way uptown for lunch. I'm a sucker for a parade, so we watched the first half, and we knew a few of the folks in it, including some Boy Scouts.
I was a Boy Scout in my youth. I have marched in those parades. I have always loved the 4th, and red, white, and blue. It was my color scheme as a kid. In Illinois, where I grew up, the schools had a habit of teaching the same portions of American history again and again and again, which means I didn't learn anything about the rest of the world until I was in college, but boy did I know about the founding of the country. We were also required to have a semester on the Constitution alone. So I know the principles on which this nation was founded.
They WERE NOT the 10 Commandments. They WERE NOT what fascists today call Christianity. Even in the rich Christian history of the European settlement of the continent, the War for Independence was fought for Enlightenment values - the rights of man, self-determination, freedom of conscience. These are not Christian values except in that Enlightenment rationalism saw the revelation of Christianity as the most rational gift ever given by God. Religion was supposed to match and reinforce what one deducted from one's factulty of reason. That meant a country was to be governed by the consent of the governed, NOT the divine right of kings. There is not LORD YOUR GOD who demands allegiance, there are only humans with needs and rights that are resonable, and if they're not, must still acceed to the demands of reason - not the lazy narcissism of outrage and other emotions.
Those men who put these ideals into the Constitution of the country, Christian or no, would never recognize what has been done to it in their name. And neither do I.
The GF was officially boycotting the holiday - it's hard to really feel like celebrating what this country stands for right now. But we happened to stumble on the parade on the way uptown for lunch. I'm a sucker for a parade, so we watched the first half, and we knew a few of the folks in it, including some Boy Scouts.
I was a Boy Scout in my youth. I have marched in those parades. I have always loved the 4th, and red, white, and blue. It was my color scheme as a kid. In Illinois, where I grew up, the schools had a habit of teaching the same portions of American history again and again and again, which means I didn't learn anything about the rest of the world until I was in college, but boy did I know about the founding of the country. We were also required to have a semester on the Constitution alone. So I know the principles on which this nation was founded.
They WERE NOT the 10 Commandments. They WERE NOT what fascists today call Christianity. Even in the rich Christian history of the European settlement of the continent, the War for Independence was fought for Enlightenment values - the rights of man, self-determination, freedom of conscience. These are not Christian values except in that Enlightenment rationalism saw the revelation of Christianity as the most rational gift ever given by God. Religion was supposed to match and reinforce what one deducted from one's factulty of reason. That meant a country was to be governed by the consent of the governed, NOT the divine right of kings. There is not LORD YOUR GOD who demands allegiance, there are only humans with needs and rights that are resonable, and if they're not, must still acceed to the demands of reason - not the lazy narcissism of outrage and other emotions.
Those men who put these ideals into the Constitution of the country, Christian or no, would never recognize what has been done to it in their name. And neither do I.
I love your journal.
We watched fire works on the dock at the house we are on the sound.
Our car has a Why04 sticker on it which gets mixed reviews around NC.... go figure!
We could use you down here....
kisses
KRISS